I’ll admit, when I first signed on to work with Arts Holding Hands and Hearts of CultureTrust, I was more than a bit nervous about going behind bars to teach teenage boys in the juvenile justice system. Sure, I had been a troubled child and spent my fair share of time in the system, my…
I want to see a new convergence of yoga, mindfulness, and social justice. Can this happen? I don’t know. I have a gut-level, insistent feeling that it’s possible. But I also feel that if this possibility is ever going be realized, the time to take action is now. Why do I feel such a sense…
Take a moment and think about a time when you were in a community that felt safe. It could be a community of any size 3, 15 or 100. Simply call to mind an experience that allowed you to fully contribute your gifts and talents as you held others in the community in full support.…
The Cycle of Violence Ends in Your Own Heart by Jacoby Ballard* So many of us do the work that we do in the world because the pain of injustice and inequity break our hearts, and many of us have been effected directly by that which our work seeks to heal or change. So often…
Yoga for First Responders: Waking Up Through Serving Domestic Soldiers by Olivia Kvitne* I remember the moment when the definition of “teaching yoga” changed for me. Barking out asanas in a hot room with a required Top 40 playlist didn’t seem to fulfill what I had intended to offer. I also didn’t practice that way,…
The Beauty and Versatility of a Chair Yoga Practice in Institutional and Clinical Settings by Joanne Spence I have just had the great fortune of finishing up a three-week trip to Australia, where I have been teaching some yoga workshops and visiting friends and family. It has been an exciting opportunity to revisit the country…
The Call to Be By Rolf Gates As a result of an addiction to alcohol and the intense suffering I experienced during my early years I seem to have been born to ask the question: What happens when we cant make it work any longer, when we are at the end of life as we…
Turning Your Vision into a Yoga Service Reality by Sue Jones I have recently begun writing a book that has lead me to reflect back on the development of the yogaHOPE TIMBo (Trauma Informed Mind Body) program. To anyone who stumbles upon this program presently, it is clear that the program is deliberately designed, research…
Understanding Interception and Supporting the Recovery of Trauma Survivors through Yoga: David Emerson One of the key theoretical underpinnings of our model of Trauma Sensitive Yoga is neuroscience with a particular focus on parts of the brain collectively known as the interoceptive pathways. These are parts of the brain that make visceral sensory experiences available to conscious awareness…
by Lynne Staropoli Boucher What a difference two years can make. In May of 2012, only two months after I finished my yoga teacher training, I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural Yoga Service Conference at Omega Institute. Fairly new to the practice of yoga and not knowing a soul at the conference, I seized…
